


Give Me Your Hand

by MenthaLightfoot



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers, Latin Hetalia - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Single Dad AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2018-05-10 05:29:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5572684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MenthaLightfoot/pseuds/MenthaLightfoot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luciano has reached the age where he’s too old to hold his dad’s hand. João takes it rather hard. (Brazil-Portugal Father/Son relationship)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Give Me Your Hand

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my Latin Hetalia writing challenge last year. Human AU (is that a tag people use in the Hetalia fandom? I don't remember anymore OH WELL) 
> 
> Also available on Tumblr: http://menthalightfoot.tumblr.com/post/105626401110/otp-challenge-day-5-holding-hands

Picking up Luciano from school was always an adventure. He had to leave work early and pick up Chao Minh from their neighbor’s, then get to the school without being too late. He liked to get some more work done before having to make dinner for Lu and Chao Minh. But for now he was cornered, talking to one of the mothers. He was the only single father, as well as having an adopted child, and they were constantly fussing over him, worrying about Lu growing up without maternal influence (he was doing just fine, thank you very much).

She grinned. “He has so much energy. Hopefully he doesn’t give you too much trouble. It’s too bad, that it’s just you and the boys.”

He glanced back at Lu, who was fighting with Martín Hernandez over who knows what, with poor little Sebas trying to come in between them. “Uh, thanks. He tries, but I’m used to it. And we’re…managing.” Chao Minh was still sitting perfectly still in his arms, one hand clutching his shirt, which was starting to slip its top button. At least he had one good child.

João picked up Luciano’s backpack—a yellow-and-green CBF one, which João had given him for his birthday—and threw it over his other shoulder. He waved goodbye to the woman, smiling as genuinely as he could. “Lu, are you ready to go?”

Lu stopped arguing, and looked back at him. “ _Sim_ , papai.” He ran over.

Martín looked shocked. He stomped his foot. “I’m not done talking to you!”

Lu whipped his head around. “Yeah, well, you only say stupid stuff. So I don’t care.” Martín’s face turned red.

“Luciano. Apologize, please,” João said.  

Lu looked betrayed. “But I didn’t do anything!”

“Do as I tell you.”

Lu pouted, but turned around and whispered an apology. Martín stuck his tongue out at him, and went to sit with his cousins. João fixed his stare on Martín, who looked sheepish and clutched Daniel’s hand. “Tell your mother we’ll be over for dinner tomorrow, Martín.”

He nodded. “Yes sir.” He pulled down his eyelid at Lu, until Sebas pulled his hand down, scolding him in Spanish.

“Come on, you little terror.”

Lu held out his hands. “I wanna carry it!” He reached for his backpack.

“All right. But you’ve got to carry it all the way home, I won’t take it back halfway.”

“I know!” João handed it down, and he clutched it to his chest, running his chubby fingers carefully over the badge before slipping it over his shoulders. João smiled and shook his head.

“Okay, let’s go.”

“ _Papai_ ,” Lu said, tugging on his pants. “Do we have to go to Martín’s house? He’s so dumb.”

He patted the top of Luciano’s head. “Don’t call people dumb, Luciano. It’s nice of Martín’s mother to invite us over so often. And you like playing with Sebastián and Daniel.”

“ _They’re_ fine. But Martín ruins everything. He always wants to be the leader of _everything_.” He was quiet for a moment. “You call Martín’s dad an idiot. I heard you say it to his mom.”

_Shit._ “Well, I…It’s different for adults, Lu. We don’t mean it in the same way.”

“No fair!”

“Well, I’m your dad, so I don’t have to be fair. What did you do in school today?”

“We practiced our reading today, so we all read a book and then we had to tell the class about it. You should have seen Martín talking—his Portuguese is so _funny-sounding_ , and sometimes he uses Spanish words even though he’s not supposed to. My book was about Pelé, and I almost didn’t even need to read it, I knew everything! I told everyone that you’d seen Pelé play, and they thought it was so cool, except Martín, but he doesn’t know anything about real football, so it’s okay. And then Sebas helped me during math—”

They came up to the big intersection on their walk home, across four lanes of traffic. He reached down for Luciano’s hand. “Hold my hand, Lu.”

Lu dodged him. “ _Papai_.”

“What?”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m too _old_ to hold hands. It’s for little kids.”

João stared at him. Lu still barely came up to his waist. Chao Minh wriggled in his arms, and he boosted him up a bit to hold him more securely. “Lu, please. We have to cross.”

“No! I’m too old! Martín gets to take Sebas and Daniel home all by himself!”

“Well, that’s because Sebas is with him.” He looked at his watch. “All right, I’ll let you walk across by yourself, but _stay close to me_.”

It was fine. A car didn’t come out from nowhere and hit Luciano. A kidnapper didn’t come and snatch him. But until they were safely on the other side of the road, João felt like he was having a coronary.

Lu jumped onto the sidewalk and punched the air. “See? Too old!” A car honked at them, and he waved at it as it drove away. Chao Minh giggled, and Lu started dancing to make him laugh.

João chuckled. “Okay, okay, come on. Let’s go home.”  

The next day, Luciano wouldn’t hold his hand again. João smiled tightly and patted his head when they were on the other side, but he kept one hand on Lu’s shoulder the rest of the way home, while he talked endlessly about the game of football they played before school. He watched Luciano as he did his homework at the kitchen table, and Chao Minh played with his crayons, talking to his favorite stuffed rabbit. _He was fine. And he is getting older. But…what if something happens to him? I could be right_ there _, and still not be able to do anything to protect him._

He asked Lovina and Antonio after dinner that night, when the kids were upstairs playing. “Is six old enough for a kid to walk across the street by without holding your hand?”

Lovina stared at him, one eyebrow cocked. “Are you serious. That’s what you’ve been uptight about?”

João fiddled with his napkin. “Lu wouldn’t hold my hand yesterday when we crossed the street on the way home. Or today. I just…I can’t tell, if he’s really ready or not.”

Lovina snorted. “If you ask me, you baby him too much.”

That was rich, coming from a woman who wouldn’t hear a single complaint against her son. “I just…Rio is a dangerous city.”

She pointed a knife at him. “It’s only dangerous if you shelter him. My mother walked home four miles every day from school with her sisters in Palermo. And those were in the days when the Mafia would snatch you right off the street in broad daylight.”

João sighed. “Is it so wrong to want to protect him? He’s so sweet and innocent, and there’s so much…awful in the world.”

Antonio sat next to him and refilled his wine glass. “João. It’s crossing the street. He’s luckier than a lot of boys in Rio, if that’s all you have to worry about.” 

Maybe they had a point.

When he went to collect Luciano and Chao Minh, it was strangely quiet. He opened the door to the bedroom the cousins shared. All of them were piled on the bed, fast asleep. Martín’s head was resting on Lu’s shoulder.

João picked up Chao Minh, and shook Luciano. “Wake up, Lu. It’s time to go home.”  Lu rubbed his eyes and smacked his lips sleepily. He held out his arms for João to pick him up.

He tucked Chao Minh more carefully into the crook of his arm _._ “I can’t pick you up, Lu. Come on, get up.”

Lu whined, but he wriggled out from his spot and slid off the edge of the bed onto the floor. He held out his hand. _Oh sure, now he wants to hold hands._ João took it, and Lu leaned heavily against his legs, his footsteps plodding on the concrete floor. They said their goodnights to Antonio and Lovina, and went out into the night. Luciano held his hand tightly all the way home.

When they got home, Luciano went over to the couch and lied down on it. João shook his head—he seemed to like sleeping there more than in his own bed. João got Chao Minh into his pajamas and in bed, and came back out into the living room.

He sat down next to Luciano and lightly shook his shoulder. Lu opened his eyes halfway, and placed his head on João’s leg.

João petted his hair. “I have something to tell you, Lu. I know you’re tired, but it’s pretty important. It’s about being a grownup.” Lu’s eyes opened a little more. “How about we make a deal? I’ll let you walk home from school without holding my hand at all. But you have to be careful and never run ahead of me, okay? And…if that works out, maybe when you’re a little older I’ll let you walk home without me. But only if you walk with Martín and his cousins, and you _never_ go anywhere except straight home. Okay?”

Lu nodded. “Kay, papai. Can I go to sleep now?”

He kissed Luciano’s curls. “Of course. I’m…I’m proud of you, Lu. You’re growing up so fast.”

João picked him up and carried him to his room. He put Lu down and got his pajamas out, but when he turned around Lu had kicked off his shirt and pants, and was fast asleep on top of the covers in his underwear.

“Oh, Lu.” He gathered up the clothes and put them in the laundry basket.

“Papai?”

Chao Minh sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes.

João smiled. “What is it? Are you all right?”

He nodded. “When do I get to go to school, papai? Like Luciano?”

He chuckled. “Hopefully never. You’ll stay home with me and keep me company in my old age.”  

“Are you old, papai?”

He probably walked into that one on his own.


End file.
